Staring
by Jan Lee
Summary: ONESHOT. Sai stares, seeing Sakura's secret sexual sensations. Sakura-centric, Sai/Sakura.


**Disclaimer: **I don't own Naruto.

**Rating: M, **for some sexual content and just to be safe.

**A/N: **My first attempt at a Sakura/Sai fic. Not sure how it turned out...might end up tweaking it a little later. Let me know what you think.

**Staring**

Sakura's eyes connected with Sai's. He held the connection like a slow eight-count note, crossing the line that said 'Staring' quite easily.

At first, she didn't know what to make of it.

Sure, he'd watched her before. _This_ was somehow different. She often thought his expressionless gaze to be disconcerting and awkward, mainly because he _didn't know_ when a look became a stare. Or if he did, he didn't choose to look away, which was most disconcerting of all.

This stare made her feel captured and created a strange tingle that cascaded down her spine. What prey must feel under a predator's attention.

Sakura dropped her eyes to the injured villager, but still felt Sai staring. Like a fly buzzing around the room. It irritated and distracted.

"You know," she said without looking up, "staring's rude."

"Staring?"

His tone, objective and just as expressionless as his face, served to sear her irritation into her shoulders. She felt tight, taut, like a bowstring pulled too far. He _knew _what she meant.

She put some force behind her words. "Yes. _Staring_. It's _rude_."

"Am I to apologize?"

Question, answer, question, answer. Their conversations always adhered to the same pattern. He didn't know any better, she reasoned. He was exploring and asking because he was curious.

She had to be patient. That's what teachers did. Help students with discovering the answers. He was the student; she was the teacher.

For some reason, she couldn't muster the patience. "Yes. An apology would be nice."

"Why?"

The irritation made her flinch. Heat flooded to her face; her blood pumped viciously through her arteries and veins. She could _feel_ the angry pulse.

I should have known, she thought, stopping the flow of chakra to the villager's wound. At this rate, she would shock him and cause more harm than good. Only after a couple deep breaths and some counting did she feel in control enough to continue. She ignored Sai's question.

And she should have known that Sai would approach her to watch her work, or rather, to watch _her_, and he still hovered just a little too close for comfort. Just like with his staring, he managed to naively make her uncomfortable with his ignorance of what was socially appropriate.

"Have I made you upset?"

The question shredded her patience as if it was rice paper. She snapped her head up and glared at him.

"_Stop_ distracting me so I can do this properly!"

And almost immediately she regretted her harsh tone because the blankness shifted---his eyes widened a tiny bit, his mouth bent down some, and she recognized the wounded look she often saw Naruto affect when she did something mean and ruthless to him when she wasn't thinking.

A long silence and tension filled the air and space between them.

"I'm sorry," she said finally, forcing herself to keep her eyes on his. "I shouldn't have said that."

He blinked. The injury disappeared from his mouth and eyes. Expressionless, again. The quick drain of the look unsettled her, so she returned her attention to her work.

She watched him out of the corner of her eye. Sai moved around the table they had placed the villager on to stand beside her. He stood at her elbow, his Snow White skin almost glowing with paleness, and stood too close, as she expected.

Her elbow could ram into his stomach within an inch.

He hesitated. "Are you really sorry?"

Did he sound cynical? She thought she heard a slight inflection on 'really.' It could be her imagination---but over her time as Sai's teammate, she noticed that he'd picked up the rise and fall of speech from them. Subtle as it may be, it was there.

Sakura shifted so she looked at him. "I am."

"Oh," he said, and this was another speech-thing he'd picked up from his teammates…from _her_, in fact. He peered at her. "So why?"

This was another pattern. His questions, if unanswered, were repeated regardless of the topic of conversation. Sakura had to think a second before she remembered he had asked about why he should apologize for staring.

She sighed, attended the villager again as she answered. "Staring is rude. You're apologizing because you were being rude."

"Is that what upset you?"

"Yes." Not only that, but she didn't want to harp on it.

"I apologize."

And there it was. A normal person would have apologized ten minutes ago, but not Sai. She smiled, mainly because it was so _Sai_ to go about finding the correct reason for everything and wanting to know _why_ like a two-year old.

And speaking of---"Why were you staring anyway?"

To her utter amazement, Sai shifted _as though uncomfortable_. Sakura actually glanced up, and there was the ghost of a frown on his lips. And his _eyes_! His eyes were down, _shy_, and taking interest in the villager's leg.

What in the world…?

"I was…" he hesitated and shifted again. "I was watching you work."

"Watching me work?" She didn't think that was quite the truth. "You watch me work all the time. But you've never _stared_ before."

"Oh."

It amused her that he _felt nervous_, and she took pity on him, since she understood all too well what an _uncomfortable_ sensation nervousness was, and didn't press him further.

She continued her work intently and didn't realize he'd stepped closer to her until she felt his breath on her cheek. Then she saw that he was no longer to her _side_, but hovering over her, so much so that if he nodded his head down, his chin would rest on her shoulder.

For the surprise, Sakura straightened and her back bumped his chest, and something in that unassuming touch started a chain reaction. A flush of heat exploded to her face and a deep fluttering occurred under her stomach. Air seemed hard to come by. A desire for him to put his hands on her threaded through her body.

This feeling…this was a feeling she had when Sasuke, who'd actually been Naruto in disguise, (but what did that matter?), had shown interest in her and leaned forward to kiss her all those years ago when they'd been genins.

Only this feeling was more potent. Intoxicating.

Sai's closeness was no longer uncomfortable. No. It had taken a sudden turn to the sensuous.

Why?

But more importantly, _how_?

_How _did being close to Sai turn into such a _thrill_?

Must be fatigue. Must be her feminine hormones. Must be _anything _but attraction to a socially-retarded Black Ops agent with no emotions. But there was no other explanation.

Her abrupt and heated response didn't make sense otherwise. The attraction had lain dormant, or better yet, it had crept up on her, biding its time for when they'd be sent on a mission together, _alone_, and she'd have him all to herself.

She had him all to herself.

The thought was both terrifying and magnificent.

But reality hit. Would he even know what 'attraction' was? How to kiss? Hug? Smile and laugh with her, mess around, and joke and flirt?

All those questions had the same resounding 'NO' as an answer. These would be things she'd have to teach him, that she'd have to patiently explain then show…him…

Oh. Oh, God.

Sai's hands rested on her hips. Everything that had been roping through her body nearly tripled in intensity with the heat his hands imprinted on her.

Sakura opened her mouth to say 'Sai' or 'Stop' or _something_, but the words died when he _kissed _the corner of her neck and shoulder. And not just kissed.

Nibbled.

A slight scuffle ensued---she twisted, wanting to face him, but he suppressed her efforts. She had never known his physical strength, only his capacity for strategy and great chakra combinations.

Now, Sai pinned her closely to the edge of the table, his body a very masculine wall behind her. Sakura couldn't budge; he'd secured one hand down on the tabletop. His other hand flew from her hip and shoved the villager off the table.

The wounded man thudded on the floor, and the sheer horror forced her voice from her.

"SAI!" Sakura shrieked. "That's not how…!"

What she said lost ferocity as his hands slipped up under her top, under the bottom of the stretchy supportive bra, and cupped her breasts. And the sensitive skin and nipples cried, _screamed_, at the smooth fabric of his gloves, wanting his fingers and palms unadulterated and uncovered.

His hands rounded the underside of her breasts, teasing seductively, creating a…a fire, _no_, a _lust_ explosion between her legs and had her gasping and gripping the table for her life.

Slick tongue swirled at her pulse point---no doubt he sensed the upheaval her body was in. And just when she thought she would melt from the heat and arousal, his hand slid over her belly, ponderously, as though following a whim, and dipped below the waistband of her shorts.

All her muscles twitched along the pathway of his hand, and he paused to lick the shell of her ear. His breath and hot tongue sent waves of delicate nerves crashing down her spine and into the pit of her stomach.

When the table's edge proved an obstacle, he merely pressed her closer into him, and continued the slow journey into her shorts. She felt a hardness rub against her, had a brief 'Oh, he _is _a man,' thought before his fingers carded through the bristle at her crotch.

"Uhn…Suh…ah!"

The pad of a finger had reached her 'pearl,' as her kunoichi instructors had nicknamed the bundle of nerves. She squirmed, as his finger explored, flicking or ever so slightly rubbing.

The throbbing…the throbbing tormented her, _he _was tormenting her, she knew, but didn't care as long as he gave her this pleasure.

When he did that, all her screws and bolts twisted, tightened, and she _strained_ against what he was doing to her, sweating where his arm and hand rested, in the small of her back, under the hand kneading her breast.

He, or rather, his fingers, were pushing her to the edge of what she knew would be hard, gasping release. The throbbing swelled, like the crest of a wave, deeper and more intense than she thought possible.

Sai groaned.

But…she had just enough sense to think, 'That didn't sound very close.' His mouth was at her neck…a groan from him would have send shockwaves through her.

Another groan. And since she was listening, she realized that it _wasn't _coming from Sai.

It came from the injured villager on the floor.

But Sai's hands hindered her, the one _touching _her and the other up her shirt weren't moving.

"The…uh…patient," she gasped breathlessly, as a fresh burst of heat spurted from where his fingers toyed.

"Hm?"

He nuzzled her, lips rubbing her neck. She couldn't think…

"The villager. Is…?" Sakura couldn't focus on the words with his hands and his teeth and her flexing muscles and pounding heart. "Sai? We have to---"

Another groan, and this time louder and prolonged.

The hands didn't relent, nor did the mouth or the tongue.

_Get a grip_, she shouted inwardly. It was her job, dammit, to help and heal, not to…to allow someone's hands all over her like some _floozy_!

And in a _clinic_, no less!

Sakura bit down on her lip, reasoning that if it could break genjutsu, then it would break Sai's hold on her. The pain staved the arousal and throbbing enough for her to grab Sai's hands and disengage them from her body.

He writhed in her grip, but she jockeyed around, and sternly shoved him away. Sai bumped into the opposite wall, where he made a movement as if to advance.

"Oh, no, you don't." She held up her fist, glared at him fiercely. "Stay away."

He stayed.

Her tongue explored her lip, tasted copper. She still panted, the heat still simmered her blood, and Sai's pallid cheeks were in high flush. But he'd been able to put up his mask before she faced him. His expressionless stare angered her.

"The patient. He's waking," she explained and stepped around to jostle the villager onto the table.

Sai drew her unwilling gaze. He had a smile fixed on his face and his arms folded. It was the same stance, the same look he had when he was going to say something blunt and obnoxious.

"Wow. You really are a woman."

The rage hit her with the force of Lady Tsunade's punches, and she smiled sweetly back at him. REVENGE, howled a thought. REVENGE!

"Would you come help me?"

Sai complied---he had always trusted that smile---and when he was close enough, she slapped him as hard she could without lethality. This time, he flew to the ground, skidded ten feet, and sprawled limply on the linoleum. Several seconds passed before he stirred.

He looked at her from behind his hand, which no doubt hid a red, swollen cheek.

Sakura fairly hissed. "_Jackass_! Don't touch me _again_!"

Then she whirled and concentrated on the villager. She ignored Sai's quiet presence, and he remained against the wall and didn't ask any questions.

Without looking, Sakura felt his stare. She wanted to pound him into oblivion, but more than that, she wanted to kiss him.

What was wrong with her?

Her hands hummed with chakra as she healed the villager. Why couldn't she be attracted to someone _normal_?

First it had been Sasuke, with his 'I am an avenger' mysteriousness. Then she'd had a crush on Master Kakashi but he was her teacher and also very…uh…screwed up, would be Ino's terminology, but Sakura thought it was the amount of emotional baggage he carried around. And, to tell the truth, the Sharingan was _creepy_.

Of course there had been Naruto, but, _hello?_ demon container, which she didn't care about _that _much, but Naruto had one thing in his mind (well, two) and those were becoming Hokage and getting Sasuke back to Konoha.

No room for her _or _for Hinata, who was so desperately in love with him, it had become a sort of joke when they were in the same area.

Kiba was nice, but she couldn't stand the thought of what those fangs could do, and she'd also have to deal with Akamaru. She'd never been good with animals.

Rock Lee was weird and annoying; Neji, too dramatic and whinny; Shino, too serious and buggy; and Shikamaru was too lazy, and in love with Temari, anyway.

And now Sai.

Sai and his lack of personality, which was, in fact, his personality, and his inability to bond to anyone and his unknown history. His pretty-boy looks, and his strange sense of style, and his ink and paintings and drawings, and how deep she could look into his inky eyes and see _something_ instead of coldness like she'd seen in Sasuke's eyes.

His attentiveness to her, and the way his eyes would sweep over her, as if taking in her form to store away and pull out later. He would listen to her and do or agree or disagree or question, and he would stay with her so she wouldn't be by herself.

Like now.

And how he said weird and socially inappropriate things, which were funny when she thought of it, given the context of his life. How he was _trying _to change and form bonds like Naruto did, like _everyone _did, except for him, because those skills had been deemed 'unnecessary' and 'in the way' of things like assassination, protection, and loyalty to land and lord.

And she realized how completely unfair she had treated him.

Sai had been trying to form a bond with her…a _sexual_ bond, maybe even his _first_ bond of _that_ type, and what did she do?

She'd shoved and slapped him, and called him a name. Ignored him.

He didn't deserve someone as mean and as careless with emotions as she was. Didn't he know that she was clumsy? Stupid? Why would he want someone like that when _he _was so different?

Her shame at her cruelty erupted in her chest, a familiar knot formed in her throat, and she managed to finish healing the patient before her vision blurred.

A few tears splashed on the villager's chest, before she sank to her knees, weakened at the self-inflicted wounds. Sakura tried to keep the crying quiet, but she couldn't help the sobs wracking through her.

She heard herself blubbering. "Sai-Sai, I'm so sorry! I'm sorry! I'm sorry, Sai! So, so sorry!"

Over her tears and apologizes, she heard murmuring, and it was Sai's voice speaking with another man's voice, and she thought she heard 'penis' and 'vagina' somewhere, but couldn't be sure.

The door to the clinic slammed shut.

She'd been cowering under the clinic table, wet face buried in her wet hands, when she felt hands slip under her arms.

He said nothing as he lifted her up and situated her on the table so that he stood between her knees. Sakura took full advantage, tucking her arms around his torso and burying her face into his neck, where she smelt her salty tears and the tang of ink and surprisingly, the subtle undertones of soap.

Sakura thought she was safe from his advances, but she found her mouth latched to his, and the pain and sorrow of guilt and shame faded in the slow growth of warmth and desire.

His tongue delved for hers, and he surprised her (again!) with the passion and _feeling_ behind the kiss. His arms folded around her, clutching her so close, and for the first time she felt how warm Sai was and strong, and how they molded together like a _statue_ or like they _belonged_.

He broke the kiss and lifted his head to look down at her. Her hands toured the lines of his neck and face, and spread through his thick hair. He blinked at her.

She smiled at him. "What?"

"Now will you have sex with me?"

**End.**


End file.
